Relief and joy in Israel as first captives freed by Gaza ceasefire return home

After 471 days in Hamas captivity, three Israeli women seized on 7 October 2023 were released on Sunday as a long-awaited ceasefire deal began.
Romi Gonen, 24, from Kfar Vradim, was abducted from the Nova party in Reem. Emily Damari, a 28-year-old with British citizenship, was taken from her home in Kfar Aza. Doron Steinbrecher, 31, was also seized from her home in the same kibbutz that lies on the boundary with the Gaza Strip.
The women were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza City, surrounded by Qassem Brigades fighters and inquisitive civilians. The Red Cross then transferred them to the Israeli military, who reunited them with their mothers.
Gonen's grandmother Deborah said after her release: "I always believed that she would come back, that's what I live for. I didn't understand why it happened so late.
“I was happy to see her walk on her feet, and as soon as I see her, I will give her a hug and a kiss,” she added. “Now everything must be done to bring back the rest of the hostages, my heart goes out to everyone."
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Demari's family posted a photo of Emily smiling and happy with her mother. She lost two fingers during the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, her family said.
According to the truce agreement, the first phase, which will last six weeks, will involve the exchange of 33 Israeli captives and around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners and a return to "sustainable calm".
'Great light and happiness'
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the women’s release, with people sobbing with joy as the images were broadcast.
"I see great light and happiness, for Romi, for Doron and Emily, for their families. It's hard to believe that you see Red Cross jeeps transporting kidnapped people in Gaza,” Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded is included in the list of 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, told Walla. “I don't know how grandpa is doing and how to prepare for a festival or a funeral.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum pressure group welcomed the captives’ return “to their families who worked tirelessly for their release, to friends who prayed for their well-being, and to an entire nation that believed that this day would come”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for months refused to agree to the deal until pressured by incoming US President Donald Trump, described it as an “exciting day”.
Ayman Odeh, an MP from the left-wing, Israeli-Palestinian Hadash-Taal party wrote: "I am happy about the release of the hostages and prisoners. From here, both peoples must be freed from the yoke of the occupation. We were all born free."
The list of hostages expected to be released in the first phase of the deal consists of seven women and children, nine men under the age of 50 who are defined as wounded or sick, 10 men over the age of 50, two men who have been held captive in Gaza for more than a decade, and five female soldiers who were taken from a military base in Nahal Oz. According to estimates , at least 25 people from the list are still alive.
Three or four captives are expected to be released every Saturday during the first six weeks of the ceasefire. In the last week, 14 are set to be transferred.
The deal, which has been on the table since May, sparked huge enthusiasm among Israelis - as well as criticism and protests from parts of the public intent on continuing the war.
Gonen's friends were photographed jubilant after her release was announced. Her father said his “joy is great” but acknowledged “we don’t know who we are dealing with and until we hug her, we will not calm down”.
Adina Moshe, a resident of Nir Oz who was released from captivity after 52 days, warned on Saturday that it can take a while to recover after being released and surviving the war.
“They came out of the tunnels, but the tunnels don't come out of them,” she said.
Government failures
Others lamented the government’s failure to agree to the exchange months earlier.
Ofir Sharabi, whose father Yossi died in Gaza after 100 days in captivity, joined a protest demanding the captives’ release.
“My father was murdered after surviving in terrible conditions in captivity. If this agreement had happened in time, he would have come back to us and embraced us,” the 15-year-old said.
“The return of the murdered is an obligation, both to pay their last respects after a terrible abandonment, and so that those who are alive can live, continue, try to rise up."
Similarly, Palestinian citizen of Israel Ali al-Ziadneh, whose brother Yusuf and uncle Hamza were recently found dead in Gaza, told Haaretz: “This deal is the same deal that took place about six months ago, but they didn't do it then. Nothing will help us. The one I was waiting for is dead."
'From here, both peoples must be freed from the yoke of the occupation. We were all born free'
- Ayman Odeh, MP
There is doubt that the Israeli government is committed to moving into the second and third stages of the deal, which would free the other 62 captives. Netanyahu and his finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, have suggested the war will not end.
Dvir Kuperstein, whose brother Bar was not included in the list of 33 Israelis expected to be released in the first phase of the deal, spoke of his concerns.
He noted that a November 2023 prisoner exchange that freed 100 of the 250 Israeli captives taken on 7 October did not result in a quick deal to follow up on the rest.
"We can start with this deal, and then, as in the previous deal, we will wait again, another year will pass, and then maybe another one,” he said.
“When the hostages returned, I asked why they retuned and our Bar didn't. When will he arrive already? And that was a year ago. So, what now? I'm afraid I'll feel worse."
Israel is expected to release around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners during the first phase of the deal. Among them are 734 Palestinians who were arrested before the war and the rest are residents of Gaza who have been held by Israel since the beginning of the conflict.
Israeli authorities were expected to release 90 women and children on Sunday, but by the evening none had been freed.
Palestinian families waited outside Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank despite heavy Israeli restrictions on celebrating the prisoners’ release.
Israel has killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began 15 months ago.
Around 1,200 Israelis were killed by the Hamas-led attack on 7 October and 405 soldiers were slain during the subsequent war.
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